This is late primarily because I spent Thanksgiving week with children and grand children.

Fellow denizens and visitors, The first Thanksgiving celebration was held as a means of celebrating the fact that the Pilgrims had made it through their first year and could now feed themselves. I have no doubt that during that first year in the New World, the Plymouth settlers did much wrong, and probably would have had much to complain about. That has been the way of the world since Adam and Eve got drop-kicked out of the Garden.

Instead of complaining, on this one day, they took time out to celebrate the ways in which our Lord had blessed them. In many ways, we are in the same situation today.

There is much wrong with our nation, and for the first time in many years, our survival as a free people is in doubt. However despite our problems, despite the actions of some bone headed politicians, we, in the USA still have much for which to be thankful.

In the last thirteen months, we changed governments peacefully. There are many places in the world in which that is not possible. We have more individual liberty and wealth than virtually any nation on the globe. We are so well off that the biggest health problem among our poverty class is obesity. Our poverty class have lifestyles that many in the third world can only dream of. Every individual in our nation has the opportunity to succeed, or fail. It is a personal choice. We can travel throughout the nation, without fear of being arrested because our “papers” are not in order. We have a constitutionally protected freedom to express ourselves, and to worship as we see fit, (by way of comparison, try to proclaim Christ in Jerusalem).

We are truly a blessed people, and that is something which we need to keep in mind far more than one day a year.

I could say much more, but you should get the idea, and I have a sermon(actually two) to write.

It helps, though, if you have Microsoft Internet Explorer set about 1024x768 1280x1024 with your Favorites window activated on the left deactivated. (At least until I can get a better handle on how WordPress works.)